Like every good superhero or villain, I too have an origin story. Not to say I am either, but sometimes thinking back on how I got to where I am today feels like a story and having a superhero and villain comparison seems right. A story where sometimes I felt bad and sometimes I felt good. The one where I defeat the villain (my pain).
Currently, I drink a cup of coffee listening to “focus” music on the morning of a new year, 2025 and I am thinking to myself, “How the hell did I get here?”
If you want the sped up version, you can skip to the bottom of this post. If you are an avid story reader like me, enjoy the journey by continuing below.
It’s 2011, I am pursuing a degree in chemical engineering, but something about a “PiYo” training at my local gym is intriguing to me. I never considered myself to be a teacher, only an introverted extrovert who really enjoyed math and science. I had been a high school athlete, working out was something I was still pursuing so I wouldn’t be totally out of my league in this field… but I had never done public speaking in my life.
Throughout college, I taught this and mat pilates at least 3 days a week and it required me to do the class with my students. This also pulled me in the ashtanga yoga world over the summers I did internships in Cleveland. I was hooked. I could do headstands, I was stretching and strengthening my body. I took a yoga teacher training in 2014 and anxiety I didn’t know I had (in the form of eczema all over my body mostly) started to disappear through meditation and intentional breathing.
I began teaching yoga in 2015. I joined a local circus group doing aerial silks. By all means at the age of 22, you could consider me fit. However, as time wore on, my body was actually in pain and broken. I was doing all the “right” things by being active, but in a world where no one coaches form and how to actually take care of your body mentally and physically….doing the movement I was doing was actually abusing my body and reinforcing patterns that were not helpful.
Yoga was supposed to be healing my body, but I couldn’t go on a 1 mile walk without my left shoulder hurting, every time I got out of a backbend I would have an excruciating headache for the next hour, I tore my right hamstring, been in PT more times than I could count, and scheduled many massage sessions searching for an answer.
When I reflect on this after what I have learned now I go “duh, no wonder I was in pain.”
In 2018, I found my healing answer in a little pocket of Instagram where a doctor of physical therapy taught the anatomy section for a yoga teacher training. My entire practice and the way I was teaching changed once I started implementing movements she was posting on IG. Her name was Lara Heimann.
I did 365 days of yoga, doing her stuff. Strengthening my core, moving my joints in 3 planes of motion as well as my spine. My body stopped hurting. My posture improved. My volleyball skills (and vertical) improved. I could breathe better than I have before. It made me question, why aren’t more scientifically educated teachers teaching yoga teacher training? [A rant for another time].
Once I started teaching functional movement to others…they started to feel better. It gave me some peace, it wasn't just a fluke for my body. Once I led body educational teacher trainings and gave this gift to others they began to feel better too.
All this to say. I have been through this journey of movement. I didn’t start as a perfect human specimen. I took more trainings to learn about Gait, functional range conditioning, fascia trainings and pursued my 500 hour YTT in the LYT method. All this to understand that we are complex as human beings. There is no one cookie cutter answer to healing. That you should question why something hurts instead of determining it as the result of aging. Or forcing yourself into a mold of an outdated system.
It’s still a movement journey for me. One I am trying to tune into every day. I have pursued lifting weights in addition to yoga because my body demands more than a practice on my mat. I’m still a curious individual who wants the latest scientific education to improve human movement and my goal is to continuously give it to others. Whether they are teachers or clients. I want you to feel empowered to take on what feels best for you when you move.
To sum this up for those of you who didn’t want to read paragraph upon paragraph:
I was in pain when I was in my 20s, though I had been doing movement you would consider healthy for a young person
I took my first YTT in 2014 and my eczema went away after turning inward with meditation
I was still in pain and went to PT, got massages, did more yoga
I learned beneficial information from a doctor of physical therapy in 2018 (Lara Heimann)
I implemented it into my own movement practice and educational trainings
Took my 500 YTT from a physical therapist (Lara Heimann)
I took more trainings
I lift weights, play volleyball, do yoga, go hiking and more importantly breathe
Insert today…I’m still movement curious
I started Yoga by B in 2020 with the intent to educate others. It has now become more than that, blossoming into retreats and community for others. I am thankful for where I am today even though it meant going through some of these ups and downs. I believe we all have an origin story and if you’d like to share yours, I’d love to hear it below.
We ride at dawn,
B
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